Orange Jumpsuit Award

The New Jim Crow

The case of the Philadelphia abortion butcher made national news. Operating out of a filthy facility in the city, the Gosnell was responsible for the deaths of at least 7 children, and an unknown number of mothers. This guy escaped scrutiny by medical and regulatory authorities for years. The cases are finally coming to court, with the first guilty pleas by “nurses” who assisted Gosnell in his scam.

Two women accused of participating in the deadly activities inside a filthy West Philadelphia abortion clinic calmly told a judge Thursday that they were guilty.

The guilty pleas by Adrienne Moton, 34, and Sherry West, 52, leave seven defendants to be tried in the case that grabbed national headlines due to the shocking nature of the crimes that took place inside Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society.

Gosnell, 70, could face the death penalty if convicted. He is accused cutting the spinal cords of seven babies born alive at his clinic. He is also charged with the third-degree murder of Karnamaya Mongar, 41, a clinic patient who died in November 2009 from an overdose of drugs prescribed by Gosnell.

Moton, of Upper Darby, Pa., was an unlicensed clinic worker. She pleaded guilty to third-degree murder for the death of “Baby D,” one of the seven babies.

She also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit third-degree murder, participating in a corrupt organization and conspiracy to participate in a corrupt organization.

She entered her plea via a video link because she is incarcerated outside of the city. Tasha Jamerson, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, declined to say why Moton is being held elsewhere and for what reason.

Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner told Moton that he could sentence her to as much as 120 years in state prison and fine her up to $125,000.

The plea came with no agreements with the prosecution, which leaves the sentence up to him, Lerner said.

West, of Newark, Del., was an unlicensed clinic worker who routinely performed illegal operations and administered anesthesia, according to a 281-page grand jury report released in January.

She pleaded guilty to the third-degree murder of Mongar, conspiracy to commit third-degree murder, drug delivery resulting in death, participating in a corrupt organization and conspiracy to participate in a corrupt organization.

Lerner told West that she faced the possibility of being sentenced to 140 years in prison and fined up to $175,000.

Dr Kermit Gosnell, who now sits in jail without bond awaiting the trial for the murder of 8 babies, ran a practice which should have raised red flags with city and state authorities for over 15 years. A huge amount of the responsibility for this butcher’s continued ability to kill and maim was due to the unwillingness of the medical authorities to investigate or to take action. Not only the state regulatory boards, but the medical establishment bears the shame and guilt of allowing Dr Gosnell to continue his butchery on poor, and desperate women.

After ripping Dana Haynes’ cervix, uterus and bowel during a botched abortion, Kermit Gosnell – the West Philadelphia doctor now charged with murder – kept her bleeding and writhing in pain for four hours without calling for help, city prosecutors contend.

The doctor called an ambulance only after Haynes’ cousins yelled to be let into his Women’s Medical Society clinic and ordered him to do so. At the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, doctors found that most of the nearly 17-week fetus still remained in Haynes’ uterus. She needed extensive surgery and stayed at HUP for five days.

Haynes’ November 2006 case represents just one of many examples in which authorities – particularly state officials – failed to investigate alarm bells that warned something awful was happening at Gosnell’s clinic, according to the 261-page grand-jury report released by the District Attorney’s Office on Wednesday. Continue reading →